White Shark

Rating:
Summary: Bad premise, bad book
Review: This book is simply dreadful. The premise is so implausable as to be laughable. Engineered Nazi zombie with steel teeth and claws gets loose after being preserved in a u-boat for fifty years, to terrorize the coast. An author not named Benchley would not be able to get this published. Apart from some well written passages about the water, marine life and coastal towns, the book is bad. I mean, it is really bad. The title is deceptive (white shark being the code name for the Nazi Zombie) and the main charactors are so wooden as to be painful. One has to respect Benchley as the master of his genre, but he would have been better off having typed this one to re-read it and toss it in the garbage. He didn't, and there it is. Please do not read this book. Please do not buy this book.

Rating:
Summary: IT'S NOT SOMETHING... BUT SOME ONE...
Review: WHITE SHARK is perhaps one the best written dead ends in history. Although packed with ideas, some adventure, and many, many ten mile wide close calls, by the end of the book you are literally left wondering what is it you just read. Its pacing and narrative are written like the tides breaking on the shore... it rolls in, it drags out, repeat until end of novel. Every so often the waves bring up something that sparkles, but it never truly shines through. The creature here is a crackjack idea (although a lift from the film SHOCK WAVES), but Benchley spends little or no time with it. And the major players in the book are made from the thickest carboard there is - they hold no surprises, and are so routine that Benchley never breaks a sweat when writing them, because we already know them and know what will happen to them. The hero and herione will get together at the end (they do), the sidekick will pull through (he does), the son will find his first love (he does, a deaf girl with telepathic powers which Benchley mentions once, and then drops, almost like she was going to play a larger part in the story, but Benchley found it too time consuming to continue with), and the monster will die (it does, pretty quickly and easily). Not his best work. For fans, it's worth the read. For those just picking up Benchley, start and stop with JAWS.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome book!
Review: I read Peter Benchley's Creature which is the same thing as White Shark and I think it is one of the best books I've ever read. I loved the story line and even the informational stuff on history. The action sequences were incredable as well. I'd give this book more than 5 stars.

Rating:
Summary: Peter Benchley "does" it again...literally
Review: Sheesh! I know Benchley tends to write about the same topics, but this is REDICULOUS! In White Shark (also known as Peter Benchley's Creature), the more pages I passed, the more it seemed that all Benchley did was put Jaws and Beast together, with the initial "villain of the deep" replaced with something A LITTLE different from shark and squid. Here's a short plot overview:
The story opens up with the "white shark" falling to the bottom of the sea after the German U-boat delivering it across the water is blasted and sunken. KIND of original...so far, but over 50 years later, it is recovered by a national Geographic photographer traveling in a submersible (like in Beast). It soon managers to escape its captors, where it makes its home in the vast ocean areas near a group of small islands off the Coast of Connecticut (kind of the case with the shark and squid from Jaws and Beast). A young biologist (who seemed like Chief Brody and Matt Hooper, both from Jaws, and Whip Darling from Beast all combined into one man) named Simon Chase, who has had trouble in his married life (like Brody from Jaws) and his mate, a Pequot Indian named Tall Man (who is very much like Mike from Beast and Quint from Jaws) must try to solve the mystery of the failed Nazi experiment's existence after strange things begin to occur: Two divers are killed (like in Beast). Dead animals are appearing through the waves by the dozens. Chase's worst enemy, a local fisherman named Puckett (very similar to Carl Frith from Beast) claims to have seen a monster (also in Beast).
Besides the same commercial plot and characters, there are also many similarities in Benchley's writing. The style in Beast can be easily compared to the style in White Shark. In both novels, Benchley delivers the initial storyline through regular and/or extensive chapters, and then immediately breaks into another, shorter chapter, dealing with what the monsters are doing and thinking/feeling at the same time of the other characters' actions. Even the thoughts and the goings-on of the creatures are delivered in very similar patterns. Consider the following two quotes:
"The creature moved toward the unnatural thing, then hovered over it, searching for the source of the sound. Any sound, any change whatever in the normal rhythms of the sea, could mean prey..." from Beast.
"As it moved into deeper water, scouring the sloping sands in search of things to kill, the membranes in its head had sensed new sounds--unfamiliar, high-pitched, far away. It had tracked the sounds, feeling them grow even louder and more pronounced...it had noticed other things; smaller quicker things, things that might be prey..." from White Shark.
White Shark is not a book one can read on a regular basis; it features nothing but a number of noticeable similarities to Benchley's past deep-sea monster books (the only visible difference being that more animals become prey than humans), and a rather boring and contradictory ending in which the creature (who is supposed to come off as highly intelligent due to its great human-like doings and brain capacity) falls for a really dumb trick that leads to the final sequences. At times, the novel is slow, dull and tiresome due to these factors. With no new twists aboard his ship, it's no wonder Peter Benchley can't make White Shark a read that would be easy to finish right away.

Rating:
Summary: Simply unbelievable...
Review: I was very disappointed with this book; I expected something of the quality of Jaws but instead found myself reading a shallow and disappointing story that is quite simply not worth the money to buy. Benchley is a good writer, and the story is readable enough, but is badly (read BADLY) let down in the believability stakes. If you want to read this book, find it in a library; don't waste your money buying it.

Rating:
Summary: whoa -- freaky book
Review: This is an excellent redemption of jaws. I love how Benchley makes the shark save those 2 bathers lives. And the monster is just plain freaky. The only problem is the name: the creature is not a white shark. I'm glad benchley changed the name to "Creature" (yes they are the same book).

Rating:
Summary: A Fast Paced Thriller
Review: Peter Benchley is a truly amazing writer of the deep. But I must say after reading Jaws I was very mad because he discribed The Great White as a blood thirsty killing machine. In White Shark the creature from the deep is a expariment gone wrong not a Great White. There is a White in this story and Peter Benchley describes it as a butiful wonder of the deep, NOT a evil killing thing. The characters in this book are trully amazing and unforgetable. Benchley does a terrific job of making you feel for the characters. And of all the attack parts are really good if not a litte GROSS. This book trully bad Jaws look like a pet goldfish phisicly and in the way that this book kicks the book Jaws out of the water. Want a good book with thrills and chills... Read White Shark By Petetr Benchley!

Rating:
Summary: This book grabbed my attention from the beginning!
Review: This was even better than "Jaws"! Great suspense! Characters seem to come alive. Benchley certainly knows how to keep a reader hooked until the shocking ending! Great writing throughout this shocking book! I loved the ending!

Rating:
Summary: What a wonderful book
Review: This book was amazing. I couldn't put it down. It combined Benchleys excellent Sci-fi writing skills with sheer terror. I gave it 5 stars because it is probably the best book I've ever read. I strongly suggest you read this book if you like Sci-fi.

Rating:
Summary: Another great summer read
Review: Don't let the title fool you, the shark is the last thing you have to worry about... Frightening and involving, the story revolves around a marine biologist and a small island community which is suddenly being terrorized by unexplainable deaths and disappearences in the ocean. The discovery of a fiercely territorial and pregnant great white shark gets the community in an uproar, but it soon becomes clear that it is not the great white making these attacks. An aquatic creature, product of the nightmarish experiments conducted by Nazis during WWII in the search of more potent, biological weapons has been re-awakened. Now it is up to the biologist, his friend 'Tall man', and a few others to put a stop to this creature. Terrifying and nerve-racking, the description of the creature and its movements and behavior is unforgettable. YEt another fantastic summer read and a real page turner. The made-for-TV movie did this book NO justice. Aptly renamed 'Peter Benchley's Creature', and then re-published under that name, the movie was completely awful. The only good aspect about it was casting Craig T. Nelson (Of tv's Coach fame) as the main character, a good choice as he fits the role well. Despite the atrocious movie, i strongly recommend purchasing this book. Peter Benchley does it again!